A project born from Borknagar members traveling to Japan to fuse extreme metal with ancient stories.
For a good sense of what Ibaraki does, try 'Tamashii No Houkai' or 'Kagutsuchi.' Both show how they handle those mythological themes without losing the metal edge.
Ibaraki matters because they're doing something specific and unusual, taking Norwegian black metal foundations and weaving them through Japanese mythology with help from lyricist Arata Ikami. Songs like 'Tamashii No Houkai' show how they translate these ancient themes into heavy, atmospheric tracks. It's not just cultural borrowing; they traveled to Japan to immerse themselves, which gives the music a different texture than most metal projects.
The project formed in 2018 when Ihsahn and Einar Solberg started collaborating outside Borknagar. They released the debut single 'Kagutsuchi' in 2020, followed by albums 'Rashomon' in 2021 and a self-titled record in 2022. The work has stayed focused on that fusion of Western metal structures with Japanese mythological content across tracks like 'Ibaraki-Dōji' and 'Kaizoku.'
Keep it compact: a lyric you come back to, a live memory, or the part of the catalog you would point someone toward first.
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